okaywolf: Photo of Fenrir sitting, looking up at an overcast sky reflected in their sunglasses. (Default)
[personal profile] okaywolf
Written to the prompt by Making Up Adventurers — Adventurer who has been very carefully keeping seeds and cuttings from every new specimen of plant they’ve found in this adventure. Including the man-eating ones. Especially the man-eating ones.

Originally posted on cohost on April 8th, 2024.


~~~

“What’s up with that?”

Erin hadn’t been travelling in a dedicated group for long but it had been long enough that she longed for the peace of when she hadn’t yet been discovered with the secateurs she diligently sterilized with the remainder of boiled water from her very often cups of tea. She doesn’t do a good job hiding her annoyance at being talked about not even that distantly, but she still isn’t used to being around people like this and she struggles to care.

“Oh, uh, plants? You know?”

At least they didn’t know why.

The one with all the books—Erin hadn’t bothered to learn names—thought she had some sort of academic interest or pursuit. The one who made most of the meals—that Erin did her best to exclude herself from—thought she was testing practical uses. The oblivious one that somehow kept saving Erin’s skin—an unfortunate reality that kept Erin in the dedicated group because it kept happening—thought “plants, you know?”

At least they weren’t wrong, like the others.

In a couple days, when just Erin and the oblivious one are still alive—Erin only alive because the oblivious one somehow saved her skin once again—with all sorts of stinging scrapes that she’s pretty sure are corroding her skin, Erin trudges through muck and swamproot with her secateurs while the oblivious one doesn’t shout at her—the shouting is what activates it. She returns to the oblivious one with a selection of cuttings that probably aren’t yet containing nutrients from the slowly digesting remainder of the dedicated group.

They’re a couple days well-past minimum required safe speaking distance when the oblivious one—all upset and shouting in ways Erin doesn’t do a good job hiding her annoyance at—asks, “What is all that about?”

Erin smiles—she does a very bad job at smiling—and does a very good job at sounding earnest, “I like having friends.”

~~~

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okaywolf: Photo of Fenrir sitting, looking up at an overcast sky reflected in their sunglasses. (Default)
okaywolf

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